A former Brazilian prostitute plans to sue the US embassy and five of its personnel for injuries sustained outside a strip club late last year, complicating the second of two embarrassing incidents to emerge recently involving US officials and South American sex workers. Romilda Aparecida Ferreira, 31, and her lawyer said they planned to file suit for injuries, medical expenses, lost income and psychological trauma after an embassy van ran over her and left her stranded in the club parking lot with a broken collarbone, punctured lung and other injuries.
The incident occurred on Dec. A civil suit would compound a case in which Brazilian prosecutors have already said they are considering criminal charges, including assault and failure to provide assistance to an injured person. It also threatens to further tarnish the image of US personnel overseas in the wake of a separate scandal involving US Secret Service members and prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, earlier this month.
Little noticed at the time, the incident in Brasilia, gained traction this week when a local reporter asked US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, then on a visit to the country, about what happened. Ferreira said she, along with her co-workers, first met the four Americans over tequila and whiskey inside the strip club. Ferreira said she was forced out of the van by one of the men when she attempted to join some of her colleagues, who had already entered the vehicle.
She said she panicked when the man grabbed her, so she attempted to hold on to the van, but fell to the ground, hit her head and lost consciousness. After she fell, the man told the van driver to go. In a Washington press briefing on Wednesday, a US Department of State spokeswoman confirmed Ferreira was run over, but gave a conflicting account of one particular β Ferreira had tried to open the door when the van was already moving, she said.
Ferreira, who worked as a stripper at the club for three years, said she was traumatized by the incident, which resulted in her being hospitalized for 12 days. Her lawyers said they followed up with the embassy, but failed to reach an agreement on payment and a condition that would have required Ferreira to sign a non--disclosure agreement.
